This Is A Moose

Director Billy Waddler is trying to film a documentary about moose, but the moose in question has no intention of spending his life in the woods and his animal friends, who have dreams of their own, help him prove his point.

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Alas, the work of a director is often difficult and frustrating … especially for this particular film maker.
Intent on creating a documentary about the mighty moose, Director Billy is becoming very irritated with the leading star. Why? Well, this “mighty moose” has no interest at all in doing moose-like things such as wading through marshes, eating leaves, drinking from the lakes or emitting mournful moose calls.
Instead, dressed in an astronaut helmet and space boots, Moose is ready to blast into outer space at any moment. (Our moose is clearly an unconventional animal with unconventional interests. Perhaps unconventionality runs in Moose’s family … his grandmother wishes to be a professional lacrosse player.)
Nevertheless, various filming attempts of Moose are made, none to the director’s satisfaction.
Then, suddenly, Moose is launched into outer space!
With this, Director Billy becomes completely fed up. He yells “CUT!” and lectures the cast about what is expected from them. (Moose, of course, is no longer around to hear him.)
At this point in the story, readers discover that the director is also very unconventional and doesn’t fit the general perception of a film director at all. Instead, he’s a short duck who wears a beret.
The ridiculous animal antics and general chaos continue until Director Billy finds a very surprising but entirely satisfactory solution to his filming woes.
Is there a theme to this picture book full of mayhem and madness? Yes, putting aside stereotypes and accepting the unexpected is the message revealed by this witty parody for children.
** Recommended for ages 5 to 8 years.

This is a fun book about defying expectations and not letting other people define your abilities. The boldly-colored illustrations and expressive hand-lettering contribute to the story's humor and make it a great title to read aloud.

Behold! The Mighty Moose. Wild, strong, and...an astronaut. "Cut!" yells the off-screen director. This is a nature documentary, and a moose acting un-moose-like is unacceptable. Over and over he calls for retakes only to become more and more frustrated because the moose and other animals aren't behaving as they should. Nor should they act according to preconceived notions. This hilarious "film" focuses on the meaning of "you can't judge a book by its cover" by bringing in some very wild ideas, and plenty of random humour. With its grainy mixture of inks, pencil-crayons and gouache, images easily transition from a noble wilderness feel, to funny cameos, all while still baring a resemblance to film. All the animals act "naturally", but the director can't see that. His speech bubble usually appears on the left page, and gets progressively more expressive text as he gets rattled. Only at the end is the film crew revealed. By this point, we are entirely amused, but the author has one last surprise in store for us. This final bit of irony serves the dual purpose of making us laugh out loud, and firmly planting the author's message in our minds.

The animal crew is ready and the cameras are rolling on the set of a nature documentary about "the mighty moose." They'd be getting great footage if only the star of movie would take off his space suit and act like a regular moose instead of an aspiring astronaut. (His lacrosse-playing grandma isn't helping either.) As the situation gets sillier -- and we're talking about giant-slingshot-into-space levels of silliness -- the duck director tries desperately to reign in the mayhem. Punchy, attention-grabbing artwork adds to the "high-octane entertainment" (Publishers Weekly) in this witty behind-the-scenes story about being yourself and coping with the unexpected.